Shuffle feed mechanism with stemming structure



J. K. LIGHTFooT 2,738,816

SHUF'FLE FEED MECHANISM WITH STEMMING STRUCTURE March v20, 1956 Filed April 5, 1952 ATT/P/VEY United States PatentO SHUFFLE FEED MECHANISM WITH STEMMING STRUCTURE Jackson K. Lightfoot, San Jose, Calif., assignor to Roy M. Magnuson, doing business as Magnuson Engineers, San Jose, Calif.

Application April 3, 1952, Serial No. 280,310

Q Claims. (Cl. 146-55) In the removal of projecting severable vportions of articles, such as the stemming of fruit and vegetable articles, it is important that the handling of the articles be as gentle as possible, and this is particularly true when the portions, such as stems, are firmly attached to the articles as in tomatoes, for example. In such instances it is desirable that a gentle type of removal or embodiment, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a fragmentary side elevational view of a stemming shufiie feed mechanism.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary view similar to Figure 1 but enlarged to show two adjacent sections of the stemming shuille feed mechanism.

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 showing the stemming structure at the position of initial closing lof the stemming slots.

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figures 2 and 3 showing the structure at the end of a stemming and feeding stroke.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary view taken as indicated by the line 5 5 in Figure`2.4

The shuffle feed mechanism in its conventional parts is of the type shown in the co-pending application of Ralph K. Daugherty, Serial No. 280,257.1`1led April 3, 1952 and now abandoned for Shuffle Feed Mechanism. Such mechanism includes a longitudinal series of transverse inclined stationary feed members 10 supported on the main frame 11, and an alternating series of movable feed members 12 supported on a movable frame 13. The frame 13 is supported by suitable parallel links 14 and counterbalanced by a spring link `16 suitably pivoted to the main frame 11 and the movable frame 13,

respectively. The links `14 are swung through an arc by a suitable drive means 15 so that the movable feed members 12 are alternately advanced and retracted with respect to the stationary members 10in parallel relation thereto.

In the normal operation of` a shuffle feed mechanism, with; the movable feed members retracted, the upward stroke of a movable feed member either slides or rolls an article thereon over an inclined parallel adjacent surface of a stationaly memberuntil the article rolls across the top of the stationary member intocontact with the next adjacent movable feed member. `bers are retracted the article is effectively moved past the surface of the adjacent movable feed member, as it withdraws, until it can roll on to the top of such feed member and against the next-stationary memberin the As the feed memj series. It will be seen therefore thatat twol portions ICC of the cycle an article is moving across a supporting surface which may cause rolling, shifting or other movement of the article. VIn the instant invention, one of these surfaces which is relatively movable with respect to an article is provided with severable portion removal or stemming structure in the form of a slot means whose opening and closing movement is under control of the reciprocating movement of the movable feed members. In the present embodiment the stationary member 10 is made up of an upper stationary removal or stemming part 10a and a lower movable removal or stemming part 10b normally separated to provide a removal or stemming slot 17, and the part-10b being spring-urged to slot closing position. As seen in Figure 5 a spring backing member 18 is connected by bracket supports 19 to the frame 12, only Vone end of the member 18 being shown. The member 18 is apertured to provide a guide member for a series of rods 21 connected to the lower part 10b, springs 22 being interposed between the lower part 10b and the transverse backing member 18. lt will be seen therefore (Figures 2 and 5) that the lower stemming part 10b is spring-urged upwardly to slot closing position, the movement being controlled by a side flange 23 of one adjacent movable feed member 13 and a bottom ange 24 of the other adjacent movable feed members engaging over the ends of a cross strap 26 secured to the stemming part 10b. As seen in Figure 2, in the retracted positions of the movable feed member 13 the adjacent stemming slot 17 is opened to its full extent.

As the members 13 advance for a distance of approximately two-thirds of their travel, they control movement of the lower stemming parts 10b to close slots 17 p (Figure 2) and grasp the stems 27 of any fruit 28 which are positioned or moved Vto place a stem therein. Preferably the stem grasping faces of the stemming parts 10a and 10b are formed of resilient material, such as rubber, and have lips 29 for the stem grasping operation. During further advance of the members 13 anystems which have been grasped cause a rolling of any fruit 28 up the surface of the stemming part 10a so that the stem is freed from the fruit by meansof a rolling action. In this manner, one edge of the stem becomes detached first, and the detaching action then proceeds progressively across the area of attachment of the stem to the fruit. Figure 4 illustrates the end of the upward movement of the feed members 13 when the fruit is being advanced into the next succeeding valley ofthe shutiie feed mechanism.

In operation fruit is fed into the shuffle feed mechanism over a feed ramp 30 into the rst trough of the stemming and feed structure. In this operation a certain number of the row of fruit in the trough will have their stems positionedvwithin the stemming or removal slot and will be stemmed during the rst advance of the row of fruit in a .succeeding valley, others of the fruit will have their stems located in a stemming slot and will be stemmed. The same stemmingaction occurs each time the fruit advances from valley to valley of the shuffle feed and stemming structure.

From the above description it will be apparent that the apparatus of the instant invention operates to remove from the fruit or vegetable being progressed therealong, any severable projecting portion of the fruit which extends outwardly from the meat of the fruit into a position to be grasped by the opposed slot forming parts 10a and 10b. While the particular operation has been described with respect to` the stemming of a fruit such as tomatoes, the apparatus is equally adapted to the removal of other severable projecting portions of the fruit, such as for example the skins of tomatoes, wherethe ytomatoes have been treated to cause cracking of the skin and projection of a portion of the skin away from the meat of the tomato.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment, it will be apparent that the invention is capable lof both variation and modification from the form shown so that its scope should be limited only to the scope of the claims appended hereto.

I claim:

l. A stemming apparatus for fruit and vegetable articles, comprising a shuffle feed mechanism including a frame and respective alternate series of transversely disposed stationary members and movable feed members mounted on said frame in juxtaposed parallel relation, each series of members being interconnected, each stationary member comprising an upper stationary stemming part and a lower movable stemming part normally spaced from said upper part to provide a stemming slot in which stems may be grasped, means for reciprocating said movable feed members to effect back and forth movement thereof with respect to said stationary members to progress articles across said members, and means controlled by said movable feed members during movement thereof for controlling slot closing movement of the movable parts of said stationary members as the articles are being progressed thereover to effect separation of grasped stems from the articles,

2. A stemming apparatus for fruit and vegetable articles, comprising a shuie feed mechanism including respective alternate series of transversely disposed stationary members and movable feed members, one of said members comprising an upper stemming part and a lower stemming part normally spaced from said upper part to provide a stemming slot, means mounting said parts for relative movement to close said slot to grasp any stems therein, means for reciprocating said movable feed members to progress articles across said members, and means controlled by said movable feed members during movement thereof for causing slot closing movement of said stemming parts as the articles are being progressed thereover to effect separation of grasped stems from the articles.

3. A stemming apparatus for `fruit and vegetable articles, comprising a shuffle feed mechanism including respective alternate series of transversely disposed stationary and movable feed members, at least one member of one series comprising an upper part and a lower part normally spaced apart to provide a stemming slot, means for reciprocating said movable feed members to progress articles across said members, and means controlled by said movable feed members during reciprocating movement thereof for controlling slot closing movement of the movable parts of said one member to effect grasping of any stems positioned Within the slot, and to effect separation of the grasped stems from the articles as the articles are being progressed over the members.

4. A stemming structure for fruit and vegetable articles, comprising a shuffle feed mechanism, each step of which includes a stationary member mounted in inclined position, a movable feed member mounted in inclined position adjacent an article contacting surface of said stationary member in parallel relation thereto, means for effecting reciprocation of said movable member in a path parallel to the said surface of said stationary member to progress articles up said surface, the path of reciprocation of said movable member extending from a position adjacent the upper edge of said surface to a position spaced below the lower edge of said surface, a movable element lying in the plane of said stationary member and being normally spaced in parallel relation from the lower edge thereof to providing a stemming slot, and means for causing slot closing movement of said element under control of said movable member to effect grasping of any stems positioned within the slot, and to effect separation of the grasped stems from the articles as the articles -tirc being progressed over the members.

5. A stemming apparatus for fruit and vegetable articles comprising a shuliie feed mechanism including respective alternate series of transversely disposed stationary members and movable feed members forming a bed along which articles may be progressed, each of such members having an inclined surface forming a part of said bed and along which articles may be rolled, at least one of said members having means forming an opening or slot in the said surface thereof, and said mechanism including means for periodically operating said opening forming means and for closing said opening to effect grasping of any stems positioned within the slot, and to effect separation of the grasped stems from the articles as the articles are being progressed over the members.

6. An apparatus for removal of severable projecting portions of fruit and vegetable articles comprising a frame, a shuliie feed mechanism on said frame including respective alternate series of transversely disposed members forming a'bed along which articles may be progressed transversely of said members, said members being `in inclined parallel relation so that one member of one series is capable of reciprocation back and forth across a member of the other series in a direction transverse ofthe length of said members, said series of members forming a succession of transverse valleys extending along said bed, each valley being defined in part by an inclined surface forming a part of said bed and up which articles may be moved, at least one of said members 'having means forming an opening in said surface thereof capable of receiving a projecting portion of an article during movement of the article thereacross, and said mechanism including means for periodically operating said opening forming means to close said opening during movement of an article thereacross, whereby a projecting portion is grasped `and held while ythe article is moved to separate the article from said projecting portion.

7. An apparatus for removing severable projecting portions of fruit and vegetable articles, comprising an inclined feed member, means for feeding articles to said member and across said member transversely of the length thereof, said member including an upper portion grasping part and a lower portion grasping part normally spaced apart to provide a severable portion removing slot, means for periodically operating said parts to close said slot and grasp a projecting portion of an article, and means for operating said feeding means to progress an article across said parts so as to move the article away from the portion grasped by said parts.

S. An apparatus for removing severable projecting portions of fruit and vegetable articles, comprising a shuffle feed mechanism including a first series of parallel transverse movably mounted members connected together for common movement, and also including a second series of 'parallel vtransverse members connected together, the members of said first and second series being disposed alternately with respect to each other, the members of one of said series includingan upper 'part and a lower part mounted for relative movement to provide a closeable portion grasping slot, means for reciprocating one series of said members to cause articles to progress across said members transversely thereof, and means controlled by said one series of members during movement thereof for controlling the slot closing movement of the said parts of the other series of members.

9. An 'apparatus for removal of severable projecting portions of fruit and vegetable articles comprising a frame, a shuffle feed mechanism on said frame including respective alternate series of transversely disposed parallel members forming a bed along which articles may be progressed transversely of said members, each series of members being interconnected, each of such members having an inclined surface forming a part of said bed and of said means .during progressing movement of articles across the member, `at least one series of sd members being movable in parallel relation to the other series of said members to push articles across said other member. and thereby etect progression of the articles.

6 References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,403,946 Hackmuth Jan. 17, 1922 2,137,158 Douglass Nov. 15, 1938 2,577,086 Magnuson Dec. 4, 1951 

